9.5 Years Young and a New Amputee…

So….yesterday, my boy had a wonderful day! He was so happy and peppy! He rolled on his back for scratches and I took him outside for his first unleashed pee! He walked to his ball picked it up and dropped it at my feet. And as I laughed at the ridiculousness of this action, I saw it: blood dripping into the snow.

I leashed him and brought him inside immediately to look at the incision. It still looked great!! Except…there’s this one little area (about 1/2” long) that is dripping the same blood-tinged fluid that he came home with.

Well, back to isolation for Ty and I’m watching him like a hawk. The spot won’t heal….it keeps seeping. I posted in the forums here and it sounded pretty normal: perhaps a seroma is leaking due to too much activity (damnable off leash pee!!). Ok. I can handle this. I’ll go see the vet Monday morning.

Well, today, the leaking persisted. I have been changing blankets and keeping it clean. He’s been laying for all but about 20 minutes today. I think I’m in the clear….until, dinner time.

Poor Ty stands up, excited for dinner and “sploosh” the fluid starts really flowing and dripping in the floor!! It’s not blood….just that clear, blood-tinged fluid, but A LOT of it!! I grabbed a towel and applied pressure while my husband frantically looked for the emerg vet number.

Now, we live out on an acreage and our small town has one older vet who answers her phone late. She’s not our vet, but she is awesome. I explained what was happening and realized at that moment that the flow had stopped. She said, likely a draining seroma. Keep it clean and follow up with our vet tomorrow unless it’s really scary to you, then take him to the city.

Holy moly! What a freak out! And this dog is just laying there looking at me like “what IS it, woman? Relax!”. We will be at the vet first thing in the morning….methinks another dose of antibiotics will do. 😳

Ty was up and about as usual yesterday. Even ventured into the kitchen with me sporting his new toe grips. However, that little burst of confidence was a bit too much.

I popped out to the store and when I returned, Ty was laying on his bed with grandma watching him. Then, he burst up off the floor and ran over to me, apparently dodging ALL of the traction mats we have down, and slipped pretty awkwardly on the floor. So much for the toe grips….

The rest of the day was hard for him. He was really labouring to move around and he seemed miserable and unsure of walking inside. The fall pulled at the incision a bit and it was bleeding in one spot…cleaned it up quick and it re-healed but it was obviously a set back for him.

Today he woke up peppy and had a great couple of walks outside with Gus. I popped out and picked up some ruffwear boots, so he is going to try some sweet traction shoes for inside. Hopefully they will help him move around inside a bit more comfortably and I won’t be terrified of his slipping!!!

Thank you for all of the helpful comments and suggestions! You are all so amazing! We’ll figure this out eventually….

…of course I am not letting him, but it appears that going faster is easier than going slowly.

Mr Tyson got up today from his bed and walked to the door for the first time on his own. Then he stared at me as if to say “Hey, woman, let’s go outside!” So, we did! It was a functional walk (he had business to attend to), but he wanted to go down the driveway and to the road. Gus came too, always looking around and protective. Then we booted it back to the house, by way of eating snow, and he went right back to his bed with a big ol’ grin on his face.

I have been taking him out on leash and with his harness and will continue to do so until the stitches come out, but my general thought is “when do I let him go it by himself?” And is there anything I can do to help exercise/strengthen his other legs for him? I will have to investigate.

We also got some of those Dr Busby’s Toe Grips to help out inside. He has oodles of confidence out, but not a lot on our floors (despite the skid mats). Hopefully these grips will help!

Well, we are 4 days post-amputation and Tyson is constantly amazing me.

The leakage that he was experiencing the first day back has stopped and the incision looks very good. Still a lot of bruising, but clean and dry….which is more than I can say for the weather. Here in Alberta we’ve had snow and cold and it is not great for a new three-legged guy to get around!

Tyson refuses to pee close to the house. We live on an acreage and he insists on pulling out into the wilds to do his business. 🙄 This dog….

So, I take him out every few hours for a jaunt up a small hill and into the snow to do what he has to do. If I hold the handle to the harness he won’t move. If I let him go just on leash, he’s happy as hell. It’s truly amazing.

Ive managed to get my hands on a Webmaster Plus to use once the stitches are removed! Yay! So things are going well so far. Our biggest task is keeping him from moving too much in these early days. We bought a baby gate and blocked off a small hallway to keep him secluded. It’s working great. Now I don’t need to worry about him slipping or my other dog licking the incision.

Well, we brought Tyson home yesterday evening and man, he is amazing!! It was hard for all of us, particularly my 6 year olds, to see his amputation site, but it was neat and tidy and Tyson was raring to go!

I had him out to pee three times and he even pooped, which was a little shocking! I figured he wouldn’t be pooping for a while. While he was pooping a bit of fluid/blood dripped from the incision site. Must have been a combination of the strain and effort to squat. I guess that’s normal? Lots of fluid in there….needs somewhere to go.

But, man! He wanted to walk. He hates the harnesses so far, so I need to find something better. I put them on and he looks at me and won’t move! I took the harness off and he wandered off to find a spot to pee. He. Is. Amazing.

I firmly believe that the hardest thing is going to be keeping him down until the incision heals….it’s going to be a nightmare. We are getting more traction mats and a baby’s gate today. I also found a supplier that sells Dr Buzby’s nail grips, so I’ll pick some up tomorrow.

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